3 die of rare brain infection from amoeba in water

In the press this week were reports (see here and here and here ) that the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri has killed three people this summer, as it does in a typical year. The only trouble is, Naegleria isn’t a true amoeba.

Naegleria, it turns out, is only a distant relative of the Amoebozoa, the true amoebae, which generally lack flagellae. ...much more closely related to Euglena — the flagellated (tailed) photosynthetic single-celled organisms from high school and college biology lab — and Trypanosoma, the causal organisms of sleeping sickness and Chagas disease.

But as a result of its accidental nature, Naeglaria infection is quite rare in the United States — happening perhaps 2-3 times a year — especially compared to organisms that do seek us out in water. As a blog post at the L.A. Times points out:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most commonly reported recreational water illness (RWI) is diarrhea, which can be caused by germs such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Shigella, norovirus and E. coli. These can be introduced into the water through trace amounts of fecal matter that cling to people’s bodies. The agency reports:

Swimmers share the water — and the germs in it — with every person who enters the pool. On average, people have about 0.14 grams of feces on their bottoms which, when rinsed off, can contaminate recreational water.